Conventional methods of eliminating pests (e.g., fungi, mosquitoes, flies, wasps, woodlice, bugs, beetles, grasshoppers, locusts) are toxic, carcinogenic, teratonogenic, expensive, and/or inefficient. Although many toxic pesticides (e.g., DDT, Lindan, Chlordan, etc.) are relatively inexpensive, they leave behind contamination in ground soil, water, plants and other substrates to which they may be applied in an attempt to come into contact with the target pests. This contamination works its way into humans and other mammals directly and up through the food chain. In some cases pesticide contamination can be measured in an area of application many years later.
Attempts have been made to utilize biological pesticides to mitigate the contamination that is known with toxic pesticides. However, biological pesticides suffer from poor stability over time in storage and after application. Thus, their efficacy has been limited to short-term, immediate uses.
The term “disinfectant” stands for substances or mixtures of substances for combating pathogenic microorganisms, or microorganisms that cause putrefaction, e.g. bacteria, viruses, fungus including spores. Disinfectants can minimize the risk of an infection of humans or animals, or minimize the onset of putrefaction. Since some bacteria, molds, yeasts and viruses can lead to severe diseases, disinfection cannot be dismissed from the everyday life in the medical sector and private households. The importance of disinfection for the well being of humans is often underestimated. In previous centuries more people died as a result of the large epidemics (the plague, cholera, pox or the flu) than were killed during the wars. As late as the beginning of the 20th century, severe bacterial infections were often a deadly disease even in the industrialized nations. In the countries of the so-called third world even today infectious diseases, mostly stemming from inadequate hygienic situations, claim countless deaths. Therefore a high demand for effective and inexpensive disinfectants exists, especially in the medical sector. This demand also exists in the agrarian sector particularly for fungicidal substances.
In order to obtain a highly disinfectant effect, in the past, above all, highly persistent chemical composites were used as disinfectants in order to have an effective and long-lasting protection against microorganisms. But this persistence leads to huge problems with respect to environmental aspects. The highly persistent disinfectants accumulate in the groundwater and/or the food chain, and thereby lead to ecological and health problems. For example, ecological problems can arise when disinfectants in high concentration reach biological wastewater treatment plants. In case of high concentrations of this disinfectant the microorganisms, which are necessary there, are affected in their growth, which can lead to a partial or complete failure of the wastewater treatment plant. Furthermore, persistent composites can accumulate in the sewage sludge.
A further disadvantage of conventional disinfectants is the development of resistances. Resistant causative organisms survive the treatment with the disinfectant, and can pass on their resistance to non-resistant microorganisms via the transmittal of extra chromosomal genetic material. Disinfection of microorganisms, which have developed a resistance this way, can lead to severe diseases. While this problem can currently be observed mainly in the sectors of hospitals (hospitalism) and farm animals, one can fear that such problems in the future can also occur in the sector of private households, given the fact that disinfectants are used more and more in household cleaning agents.
In order to overcome the health and ecological disadvantages of such persistent disinfectants, the use of less dangerous substances has been considered in the past, especially the use of natural substances with potential for disinfectant properties. Here it has turned out to be a disadvantage that the disinfectant effect is weaker and/or less long lasting, so that the advantage of better environmental compatibility is gained in exchange for disadvantages in regards to effectiveness and protection from microorganisms. Due to this drawback, less importance has been awarded to such ecologically compatible disinfectants and the use of environmentally hazardous compounds prevail.